Monday, January 11, 2016

IT News Head Lines (AnandTech) 12/01/2016

The
desktop PC market is seeing growth only in two areas - the gaming
high-end and the mini-PCs (in the NUC form factor). Intel has been
strengthening its offerings in the latter space as a system vendor. The
NUC has been extremely popular and Intel's partners such as Zotac and
GIGABYTE are also enjoying a lot of success with similarly sized
systems.

ARM SoC vendors started the trend of HDMI sticks, but Intel joined the game in CES 2015 with the Bay Trail Compute Stick.
The first iteration was, to put it kindly, a bit underwhelming, but
Intel showed its commitment to the form factor by announcing three new
Compute Stick models at CES 2016.

Cherry Trail Compute Stick

This
is a straight-on follow-up to the Bay Trail model from last year. The
I/O ports and hardware construction are similar, except that the Cherry
Trail model is slightly longer and includes a USB 3.0 port in addition
to the previously existing single USB 2.0 port.

Other
improved aspects include the use of Intel's own 802.11ac Wi-Fi chipset
instead of the Realtek one found in the Bay Trail version. Obviously,
Cherry Trail's GPU is better than Bay Trail's. However, the cooling fan
still remains part of the hardware. The eMMC capacity is only 32GB and
the RAM is only 2GB - two aspects that have an artificial limitation
imposed on them by Intel's decision to pre-install Windows 10 Home. Even
though the information is not public, it is likely that Microsoft
mandates neutering of a PC's hardware specifications in exchange for a
lower price for the Windows 10 OEM license.

Skylake Core M Compute Sticks

While
the Cherry Trail Compute Stick was more or less expected, the Core
M-based Compute Sticks were a real surprise. Later this year, Intel will
launch two Compute Stick models with a Core m3 and Core m5 vPro
configuration respectively. The OS will not be pre-installed, and this
means that we don't need the storage or RAM to be limited by anything
other than what the hardware design allows. In terms of available ports,
the design retains the microSD slot from the other Compute Stick
models. However, there is only one USB 3.0 port on the unit itself.
Power to the unit is delivered by a USB Type-C connector.

The
USB Type-C power adapter also includes two USB 3.0 ports. This is a
very novel use of the USB Type-C power delivery mechanism. Intel mainly
expects the Core M Compute Sticks to be popular amongst businesses and
enterprises (thanks to the availability of vPro).

NUCs

Intel
has been shipping the Skylake NUCs for a couple of months now. They had
one on display at their booth. Interesting aspects include the presence
of a SDXC slot as well as a full-sized HDMI port in the rear panel.

They
also talked about the upcoming 'Skull Canyon' mini-PC featuring a 45W
TDP Skylake H CPU with Iris Pro graphics. It will not be in the NUC form
factor, but will be a slightly larger rectangle with height similar to
the current NUCs which don't support 2.5" drives. The unit is still a
work in progress, but we expect it to launch in the second half of this
year. Unfortunately, Intel didn't allow us to take photographs of the
Skull Canyon mini-PC.

On the whole, Intel is showing
strong commitment to the mini-PC market segment. This will keep x86
relevant in the home computing space even as ARM continues to strengthen
its hold in mobile computing.

We
usually don't cover televisions in detail here at AnandTech. However,
the current flux in the market when it comes to 4K displays for HTPCs
made CES 2016 an interesting destination for us to look at what vendors
will be offering in the near future. Consumers looking for the best
possible picture quality and not concerned about the price have a number
of models to choose from in the Smasung SUHDTV series and the Sony XBR
series TVs.

Vizio and Hisense 4K TVs are perfect for
those on a tight budget. However, a limited budget also means that one
can't afford to be an early adopter and be stuck with an outdated
television early on. In June 2014, we covered the launch
of the Hisense 50H7GB 4K TV. In that article, we covered the minimum
features that a 4K HTPC display needed to support in order to not become
obsolete within a couple of years. The 50H7GB 50" 4K TV was launched at
$600. It supported HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2, with the only disappointing
factor being the absence of HDR capabilities. Consumers considering this
model obviously have price, and not picture quality, at the top of
their purchase factors. In late August 2015, Hisense had launched the
H10 series ULED TV with full-array local dimming and quantum dot
technologoy for a wider color gamut (the 65" model is currently available for $2500).

At
CES 2016, we stopped by Hisense's booth to get an idea of what they had
in store for consumers over the rest of the year and what they are
working on for future products. The good news is that all the four 4K TV
lineups get updated with HDR processing capability - the H7, H8, H9 and
H10.

The new H10 will be similar to the one
currently available on Amazon with all the Smart TV and Wi-Fi features,
but Hisense hopes to get THX certification for this high-end curved
model.

The H9 (55", $1000, February 2016) gets all the features of the new
H10 except that it will not have 3D or quantum dot technology.

The H8 (50" - $600, 55" - $700, April 2016) is not a curved model.
But, Hisense indicates that it will not have the vibrant picture quality
of the H9 and H10.

The H7 (43" - $400, 50" - $550, 55" - $650, 65" - $1300, February
2016) doesn't have the full-array local dimming present in the other
models, but carries forward other features from the H8.

It is exciting to see that HDR is making an
appearance at mainstream price points. However, wider color gamut is
absolutely essential to better appreciate the right 4K content. It might
be worthwhile to take a look at the complete specification sheets of
the above models before making a purchase decision. Important aspects to
track down would be the panel type and panel bitwidth, color gamut
coverage and black levels.

Hisense believes that there
is a big tussle going on between ULED technology and OLED. To give
consumers their perspective, they had the same clip running on a ULED TV
as well as an OLED TV side by side in their booth.

To
be frank, the OLED TV playback was more pleasing to the eye. However, a
side chart indicated that OLEDs have trouble reaching brightness levels
that can be achieved via ULED technology. In addition, the quantum dots
technology being used in ULED TVs can deliver 106% of the NTSC color
gamut, while the best OLEDs can only reach 85% of the NTSC color gamut.
While the ULED TV on display was consuming 280W, the equivalent sized
OLED TV was consuming 500W. Finally, the OLED TV on display currently
costs three times as much as the ULED TV. It would be nice if ULED TVs
could further evolve to get some of the more desirable features of OLED
TVs - particularly in terms of black levels.

Looking
further into the future, Hisense also had a static demo of a 8K model in
their booth. Other than the resolution (7680x4320), there was no other
information about the television or expected release dates.

As
part of their press releases, Hisense also indicated that the Sharp
brand is going to be alive and well, and will be around as a premium
brand. The N9000, a 70" flat-screen 4K TV with other specifications
similar to the H10 series, will come to the market in July for $3000.

Netgear's flagship router - the Nighthawk X8 (R8500) - was launched in October.
At CES, Netgear took the opportunity to upgrade the Nighthawk X4 line.
Interestingly, the original X4 - the R7500 - was launched with Quantenna
radios and a Qualcomm IPQ SoC, and promised MU-MIMO support in a future
firmware update. However, Netgear decided to enable MU-MIMO only with a
hardware upgrade - the R7500 v2 with full MU-MIMO support became an
all-Qualcomm Atheros affair. The R7500 v2 is being replaced by the
Nighthawk X4S at the same price point.

The Nighthawk
X4S (R7800) comes with an IPQ8065 dual-core SoC at 1.7GHz and the
QCA9984 radio. Unlike the AC2400-class routers introduced towards the
middle of last year, this 4x4 design supports 160 MHz (either contiguous
or 80MHz + 80 MHz) and MU-MIMO out of the box. Client support is needed
in order to take full advantage of both these features. The router has a
MSRP of $270 and is available now.

EX7300 AC2200 Nighthawk X4 WiFi Range Extender

A
wall-plug Wi-Fi extender with MU-MIMO capability (EX7300) was also
launched at CES. It belongs to the AC2200 class - 4x4 1733Mbps in the 5
GHz band and 3x3 450 Mbps in the 2.4 GHz band. The antennae are internal
and the unit also has a GbE RJ-45 port. The extender is available for
purchase now and is priced at $170. At the $140 price point, Netgear is
launching the EX6400, a AC1900-class extender with 3x3 spatial streams
in both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. 256-QAM support exists for the 2.4
GHz band. The EX6400 can also be used as a Wi-Fi access point.

Powerline WiFi 1000 (PLW1000 Kit)

On
the PLC side, Netgear has introduced the PLW1000, which combines
powerline technology with Wi-Fi. Based on the HomePlug AV2 standard,
this adapter can support up to 1 Gbps of theoretical throughput. In
addition, the PLW1000 also creates a Wi-Fi hotspot at the place of
installation. While not explicitly specified, we believe this is a 1x1
configuration for both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. It is marketed as a
802.11ac access point. The PLW1000 is priced at $120 and is available
now.

C6250 AC1600 WiFi Cable Modem Router

Netgear
also launched the C6250 Wi-Fi cable modem router. The DOCSIS 3.0 modem
supports bonding of 16 downstream and 4 upstream channels. The Wi-Fi
side is AC1600, i.e, 2x2 in the 2.4 GHz band (300 Mbps) and 3x3 in the 5
GHz band (1300 Mbps). The C6250 has a MSRP of $170 and will be
available for purchase soon.

In
ReadyNAS news, Netgear had the RN20x and 21x series on display. One of
the interesting aspects was the tie-up with Plex. On purchase of models
such as the RN202, RN204, RN212, RN214, RN312, RN314, RN316 and RN516,
customers can obtain three free months of Premium PLEX Plus.

Linksys
was one of the first vendors to jump on to the MU-MIMO bandwagon last
year with the launch of the EA8500 AC2400-class 802.11ac router. The
Max-Stream branding is used by Linksys to promote their routers. At CES,
they introduced a host of new products to expand this lineup.

EA7500 - AC1900-class with MU-MIMO

The
EA7500 is a 3x3 dual-band router based on a Qualcomm Atheros platform
(1.4GHz IPQ8064 SoC, QCA8337-AL3C switch, and QCA9982 and QCA9983
radios). This one enables 256-QAM to deliver 600 Mbps in the 2.4GHz
band. The 5 GHz band still delivers 1300 Mbps theoretical throughput.

Priced
at $200 and slated to come to the market next month, it will go against
the Netgear Nighthawk R7000 with similar speeds, but come with MU-MIMO
enabled. The latter is an important selling point as more and more
MU-MIMO clients come to the market. More information can be found on
the Linksys product page.

EA9500 - AC5400-class with MU-MIMO

The EA9500
is based on the Broadcom Tri-Band Wi-Fi platform (two 4x4 5GHz SSIDs
and one 4x4 2.4GHz SSID). This is the same platform as the AC5300
Nighthawk X8 router released by Netgear in October 2015. Compared to the
Nighthawk X8, this one comes with 8 LAN and 1 WAN port and 8 external
antennae. There doesn't seem to be any link aggregation capabilities out
of the box, but that is just a firmware feature.

Priced
at $400, availability is slated for April. The delay is due to the fact
that Broadcom is yet to bring MU-MIMO capability to the platform in the
firmware (the hardware is claimed to be MU-MIMO capable).

Miscellaneous Products

The RE7000
is a MU-MIMO-capable Wi-Fi range extender in the plug-in form factor.
It is AC1900 class, but, instead of having the same spatial stream
configuration for both 2.4GHz and 5 GHz bands, the product does 4x4 in
the 5GHz and 2x2 in the 2.4GHz channels. It comes with a single GbE
port. Priced at $150, it will come to market in Spring 2016.

The
AC600 USB MU-MIMO adapter (WUSB6100M) finally brings MU-MIMO to USB
WLAN adapters. With a 1x1 configuration (433 Mbps in 5GHz and 150 Mbps
in 2.4 GHz), it needs only a USB 2.0 interface to connect to the host
PC. The big draw here is the MU-MIMO capability which helps improve
overall system performance when used alongside other MU-MIMO clients and
a MU-MIMO-capable router.

On
the cable modem side, the CM3008 (DOCSIS 3.0, 8 downstream / 4 upstream
channel bonding, 343 Mbps down / 120 Mbps up, $70, Spring 2016) and the
CM3024 (DOCSIS 3.0, 24 downstream / 8 upstream channel bonding, 960
Mbps down / 240 Mbps up, $130, Spring 2016) were on display. There is
also a growing trend to integrate the Wi-Fi router and cable modem in
one (particularly from a service provider perspective). To address this
market, Linksys is also introducing the CG7500 which combines the CM3024
24x8 DOCSIS 3.0 platform with a AC1900 (1300 Mbps + 600 Mbps) wireless
router platform. The unit comes with four RJ-45 GbE ports and one USB
2.0 port. The antennae are all internal. It will be priced at $250 and
be available in Spring 2016.

Linksys also took the opportunity at CES to announce DD-WRT support for the routers based on Marvell silicon (WRT1900AC, WRT1200AC and WRT1900ACS).

Synology
had organized the Synology 2016 Conference back in September 2015 to
talk about their plans for the next couple of quarters. We had covered
it in great detail. In the conference, the beta version of DSM 6.0 was
launched. Synology also talked about their 2-bay Braswell unit, the
DS716+ and a 802.11ac router, the RT1900ac.

Synology's
booth at CES 2016 had a working demo of the RT1900ac. The 'DSM'
experience delivered by the Synology Router Manager (SRM) OS on the
router is quite impressive and will definitely make other router vendors
rethink the interface for their offerings. As is common nowadays,
management of the router can also be done via a mobile app. The router
OS also has plenty of interesting features for power users. One of the
unique features is the application layer QoS optimization that can bring
down the bandwidth available for, say, YouTube or BitTorrent. Other
routers have similar features, but Synology claims that their
implementation provides the best granularity.

Hardware-wise,
the unit is based on the legacy 2nd generation Broadcom 802.11ac
platform (AC1900 - 3x3 in 5GHz band for 1300 Mbps and 3x3 in 2.4 GHz
with 256-QAM for 600 Mbps). The rest of the specifications as well as
the hardware aspects are reproduced below from the datasheet.

Going
with an older platform has allowed Synology to price the unit at $150.
This is quite cheap for the specifications and will definitely be a
worthy competitor to the Netgear R7000 Nighthawk router which has
similar specifications and is priced at $200.

Synology DS716+

Coming
back to the NAS side, Synology was also demonstrating the DS716+, a
2-bay Braswell NAS which can be expanded up to seven bays with the
DX513. The interesting aspect here is that the unit is capable of
supporting btrfs volumes.

Synology
claims around 223 MBps for reads and 137 MBps for writes to a RAID-1
volume on the DS716+. Enabling encryption doesn't cause any noticeable
drop in the claimed numbers. The Quick Sync engine is now taken
advantage of in DSM to deliver real time 4K transcoding (no HEVC,
though). The DS716+ is available for $450 on Amazon.

Synology DS416j

In
fresh NAS news (i.e, what we didn't hear about at the Synology 2016
conference), Synology also launched the DS416j in order to replace the
DS414j in their budget-friendly 4-bay lineup. As is usual for budget NAS
models, this unit comes with only one network port. However, RAID-5
performance is still very good, with reads coming in at 112 MBps and
writes at 101 MBps according to Synology.

The
interesting aspect here is that Synology has opted to go with the
Marvell ARMADA 88F6828 with four native SATA ports. It is a high-end
variant in the the ARMADA 38x family, and replaces the Mindspeed SoC
used in the DS414j. The DS416j is available for $340 on Newegg.

Synology
has focused more on bringing attention to their RT1900ac router at CES
2016. Personally, I was hoping to hear about Braswell-based NAS units
with 4+ bays. Consumers looking at commercial off-the-shelf NAS units
with btrfs support will definitely be waiting for those.

At
CES 2016, QNAP showed off what they had been introducing into the APAC
market over the last three months. CES was used to make the North
American market aware of the new models. While we have the usual 4-, 6-
and 8-bay NAS units based on Braswell, three products stood out - a
4-'bay' NAS using M.2 SSDs, a 16-bay dual-CPU 40GbE-capable NAS with
12Gbps SAS support and QNAP's first foray into the high-end enterprise
space with a ZFS NAS running a completely different operating system
(QES based on FreeBSD). Before talking about the expected Braswell
updates, we will take a look at the three unique products from the QNAP
stable.

TBS-453A 4-bay M.2 SSD NASbook

The TBS-453A looks more like a mini-PC, rather than a NAS.

The
most surprising aspect of the chassis is the presence of five RJ-45
ports. These appear as two physical LAN ports to the OS (since the
second set of four is actually connected to the main SoC using a
hardware switch chip).

Removing
the bottom panel reveals four M.2 slots (capable of supporting M.2
2242, 2260 and 2280 SSDs) and two DDR3L SO-DIMM slots. The 2.08 GHz
4C/4T x86 SoC (Intel Celeron N3150 belonging to the Braswell family) is
cooled by a notebook fan (SUNON MF60090V1-C482-S9A). The absence of any
2.5" or 3.5" drives make it quite compact. The combination of ports,
speed and relative silence make it suitable for file sharing,
presentations and multimedia applications (including karaoke singing
concerts) in a portable form factor.

The QTS Network
Manager incorporates software-defined virtual switch technology
providing configuration flexibility. The presence of five RJ-45 ports on
the unit can lead to some interesting applications such as private
networks for surveillance cameras.

The
TBS-453A also supports Linux using Docker functionality. QNAP has
always had the Hybrid Desk (HD Station) app to enable video output over
HDMI on selected QNAP NAS models. Linux Station
builds upon Hybrid Desk and utilizes containers to provide users with a
complete Linux desktop on the NAS. The NASbook along with Linux Station
can act as a standard Linux desktop in this way.

Other
than these features, the usage of Braswell provides AES-NI capabilities
for better performance with encrypted volumes and folders. The
integrated Quick Sync engine can also transcode 4K material (both in
real-time and offline) Container Station and Virtualization Station
enable a number of different applications (including the running of
different OSes on the machine as well as sandboxing certain processes
for greater security).

Dual HDMI ports allow for
multimedia enjoyment using apps such as Kodi. The unit also comes with
an IR receiver and remote. Apps such as OceanKTV allows for usage of the
NASbook as a karaoke system.

Other
than the above unique features, the standard QTS capabilities for data
storage, backup and file sharing exist in the NASbook also. The storage
capacity of the TBS-453A can be expanded via the UX-500P and UX-800P
which provide five and eight 2.5" / 3.5" drive bays respectively. They
can connect to the TBS-453A using one of the USB 3.0 ports.

We
do not have concrete pricing information yet, but, with the launch
towards the end of this quarter, that should soon be clarified.

TDS-16489U Dual-CPU NAS

The
TDS-16489U is, in QNAP's own words' a hyperconverged enterprise NAS.
The capabilities of the unit are best brought out using the hardware
architecture documentation.

The
software capabilities enable the unit to act as both a storage server
and an application server. QNAP's QTS provides all the storage server
functionality. Linux and Windows VMs can enable all the compute heavy
stuff. The usage of powerful Xeon CPUs give the unit bonafide data
center server credentials.

In
a tradtional setup, boxes such as those from QNAP are used as a storage
server, with another server running Hyper-V or some VMWare tools for
virtualization. Even though QNAP's Virtualization Station can't hold a
torch to those dedicated virtualization systems, it comes with no
licensing costs and enables tighter integration of the guest OS and the
storage server infrastructure in products such as the TDS-1648U.

The hardware specifications of the NAS are reproduced below

Pricing information has not been made available yet.

ES1640dc ZFS NAS and Miscellaneous Products

QNAP also talked about their upcoming ES1640dc, which is a significant departure from their usual products.

Unlike the traditional Turbo NAS models that run the Linux-based QTS,
this unit runs QES 1.1, and is based on FreeBSD. The important
enterprise-targeting feature is the move from ext4 to ZFS for the file
system.

While
the move to QES with ZFS brings features such as inline compression,
data deduplication, checksumming / bitrot protection and increased
shapshot capabilities, we lose support for powerful QNAP apps such as
Virtualization Station and Container Station.

On the
hardware side, the ES1640dc and ES1642dc both come with dual active
controllers in order to provide high availability if one of the
controllers were to fail. The units also provide support for usage of a
DRAM DIMM as a write cache as long as a dedicated battery backup unit is
installed to copy contents to a mSATA SSD when power fails.
Additionally, this scheme also reduces wear on the flash memory when the
mSATA SSD is used as a write cache. The EJ1600 / EJ1602 expander
modules (again, with dual controller support) can be used to increase
the storage capacity of the ES1640dc.

Moving on to
other SMB-focused products, QNAP also had the TS-x53A on display in
their suite. Based on the Intel Celeron N3150 platform, these products
make up the Braswell update to the Bay Trail-based TS-x53 series. Like
the TBS-453A NASbook, the TS-x53A series come with two HDMI outputs, two
microphone inputs

Recent software updates have enabled apps such as the JRiver Media
Center for media management and playback. The other unique features such
as the ability to run full-fledged Linux using Linux station have
already been covered in the NASbook section.

The full specifications of the various models in the TS-x53A lineup are in the extract from the above spec sheet.

On
the whole, I would say that QNAP had a quiet CES. There was one major
innovative product in the TBS-453A NASbook. The rest of the products
show the direction in which QNAP has been heading, but they have all
already been talked about in the APAC market. The only disappointing
aspect, in my opinion, was that QNAP had no updates to share on the move
from ext4 to btrfs for their home consumer and SMB lineup. Considering
that Netgear has already been shipping an implementation for more than a
year now, and Synology is shipping btrfs in beta form for a couple of
months now, this was quite surprising.

Tomb
Raider is a classic series now running for nearly 20 years. While the
original titles are beyond dated graphically, Rise of the Tomb Raider
looks to not only be quite the GPU workout but also claims to be 4K
ready. Which if the screenshots are enough verification will make for
some of the sharpest graphics I’ve ever seen in game. Even if the game
is taxing at the high end those of us with more mortal machines may
still be fine, since the minimum requirements are more in the realms of a
GeForce GTX 650.

If you are interested in the new Tomb
Raider and are also looking for a GPU upgrade, you can get the game
thrown in for free and have ample graphics power on launch. From now
until February 16th the Rise of the Tomb Raider GeForce GTX Bundle will
be given to anyone who purchases a qualifying the GTX 970 or better
(excluding Titan X) desktop cards or qualifying 970M, 980M or 980
equipped notebooks computers.

NVIDIA Current Game Bundles

Video Card

Bundle

GeForce GTX Titan X

None

GeForce GTX 980Ti/980/970

Rise of the Tomb Raider

GeForce GTX 960/950

None

GeForce GTX 980 For Notebooks

Rise of the Tomb Raider

GeForce GTX 980M/970M

Rise of the Tomb Raider

GeForce GTX 965M And Below

None

Those wishing to participate are encouraged by
NVIDIA to check the product description of the item they are purchasing
to ensure that the seller is participating
in the "Rise of the Tomb Raider GeForce GTX bundle”, as NVIDIA cannot
provide codes and coupons for purchases made at non-participating
retailers and e-tailers. Per the Terms and Conditions, the offer is valid worldwide excluding China. Rise of the Tomb Raider will be released for the PC on January 28, 2016.

AMD
plans to improve performance of its desktop computing platforms by
launching a new accelerated processing unit as well as another
generation of AM3+ and FM2+ motherboards with USB 3.1 and M.2 ports. The
new APU — the AMD A10-7890K — will be the company’s most powerful
hybrid processor ever, when it is released later this quarter. The new
APU and motherboards will help AMD to maintain its competitive
positions.

Same Thing, Only Faster

The
upcoming AMD A10-7890K accelerated processing unit is based on the
Kaveri design introduced two years ago. The APU will integrate two
Steamroller modules (four x86 cores), 4 MB L2 cache, the AMD Radeon R7
integrated GPU with 512 stream processors and GCN 1.1 architecture, a
dual-channel DDR3 memory controller (which supports up to DDR3-2133
memory) as well as second-generation video coding engine (VCE) and
fourth-generation unified video decoder (UVC) units for video playback.
Just like all modern hybrid processors from AMD, the new APU is
compatible with heterogeneous system architecture specification 1.0 and
can use its graphics core for general-purpose processing (in appropriate
applications). The chip will feature unlocked multiplier.

The
main difference of the new microprocessor compared to its predecessors
will be slightly higher clock-rates and slightly better performance. AMD
does not disclose exact specifications of the A10-7890K, but claims
that its maximum turbo frequency will be 4.3 GHz, which means that its
default clock-rate will likely hit 4 GHz or higher (AMD did not confirm
this). It is unclear whether AMD plans to bundle its new Wraith cooler with the A10-7890K, but if the new chip gets the latest cooling solution, then it will get somewhat more competitive.

AMD’s
latest APUs for desktops — also known as Godavari — feature upgraded
power supply circuitry designed to deliver cleaner and higher amount of
power to the die and are made using slightly refined GlobalFoundries’ 28
nm super high performance (SHP) process technology. Improved binning
process and increased voltages (compared to the original Kaveri) enable
AMD to increase clock-rates of its APUs gradually. This helps the
company to sustain average selling price (ASP) of its desktop chips
while staying competitive against Intel’s Core i3 and Pentium offerings.

AMD Kaveri Lineup

A10-

7890K

A10-

7870K

A10-

7850K

A10-

7800

A10-

7700K

A8-

7670K

A8-

7650K

A8-

7600

X4

860K

Modules

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

Threads

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

Core Freq. (GHz)

up to 4.3

3.9-4.1

3.7-4.0

3.5-3.9

3.4-3.8

3.6-3.9

3.3-3.8

3.1-3.8

3.7-4.0

Compute Units

4+8

4+8

4+8

4+8

4+6

4+6

4+6

4+6

4+0

Streaming

Processors

512

512

512

512

384

384

384

384

N/A

IGP Freq. (MHz)

unknown

866

720

720

720

754

720

720

N/A

TDP

95W

95W

95W

65W

95W

95W

95W

65W

95W

DRAM

Frequency

2133

2133

2133

2133

2133

2133

2133

2133

1866

L2 Cache

2x2MB

2x2MB

2x2MB

2x2MB

2x2MB

2x2MB

2x2MB

2x2MB

2x2MB

The release of the AMD A10-7890K accelerated
processing unit may not be a breakthrough in terms of additional
performance. However, it shows two important things. Firstly, AMD can
increase clock-rates of its existing chips (which potentially means that
overclockers can boost them further). Secondly, AMD is confident that
its upcoming code-named Bristol Ridge APUs will be powerful enough to
leave current-gen hybrid processors behind in terms of performance.

New Motherboards Incoming

AMD
also revealed at CES that its partners are working on a new generation
of socket AM3+ and socket FM2+ motherboards. The new breed of mainboards
from various manufacturers will feature USB 3.1 gen 2 controllers
(ASMedia ASM1142) that will enable USB type-A and USB type-C ports.
Besides, select motherboards will also have M.2 connectors for
solid-state drives.

The
implementation of the USB 3.1 is relatively easy: the ASMedia ASM1142
controller requires two PCI Express 2.0 lanes (something that all modern
AMD platforms have), everything that motherboard makers need to do is
to install one chip and supporting logic. Meanwhile, a properly
implemented M.2 connector for contemporary solid-state drives needs four
PCI Express 3.0 lanes in order to provide up to 3940 MB/s of bandwidth.
The AMD FX (AM3+) platforms do not support PCIe 3.0 natively at all,
hence, AMD’s partners will have to either implement an M.2 connector
using four PCIe 2.0 ports (which would limit bandwidth to 2000 MB/s), or
use a PCIe switch to “convert” eight PCIe 2.0 lanes into four PCIe 3.0
lanes. The AMD A-series (FM2+) processors support PCIe 3.0 x16 and hence
can support an M.2 port with PCIe 3.0 x4 bandwidth, but in that case
graphics cards will have to work in PCIe 3.0 x8 mode. In general, it is
possible to add USB 3.1 and M.2 to current-generation AM3+ and FM2+
platforms, but that comes at a cost.

Waiting for Next-Generation

Without
any doubts, higher clock-rates and better feature-set will make
AMD-based platforms faster and more compelling. Unfortunately, a minor
increase in frequency as well as addition of the USB 3.1 and the M.2 to
several new motherboards will hardly dramatically increase popularity of
AMD’s A-series or FX-series microprocessors. Nonetheless, proper
pricing and up-to-date features will help AMD to maintain its positions.

What
the market is waiting for is the next-generation AMD platform that is
based on the company’s microprocessors code-named Summit Ridge. The CPU
developer hopes that its Zen micro-architecture will deliver 40% higher
IPC (instructions per clock) performance compared to the predecessor,
whereas new 14nm/16nm FinFET process technologies will help to lower
power consumption and/or increase clock-rates.

Both
AMD and Intel bundle cooling solutions with their microprocessors. Such
coolers are inexpensive, they are rather reliable and they do their
job. They are not supposed to enable great overclocking results, or be
utterly quiet, unlike premium thermal solutions from the third parties.
The two CPU developers are gradually working to improve their own
coolers and this week AMD unveiled its new “Wraith” cooling system for
its current and future chips.

At present, AMD equips
its boxed FX-series central processing units (CPUs) with a rather small
air cooler called the AMD D3. The latter is made of aluminum, is
equipped with four heat-pipes as well as a 70-mm fan. The thermal
solution can remove up to 125W of heat, but at the cost of a lot of
noise (up to 51 dbA, according to AMD). The vast majority of
enthusiasts, who buy AMD FX CPUs, usually obtain their thermal solutions
from companies like Corsair, Noctua or Scythe. However, certain PC
makers utilize bundled coolers, which may not be a very optimal decision
since they get rather loud when CPUs get hot. AMD’s high-end
accelerated processing units (APUs) can dissipate up to 95W, but their
boxed versions are also equipped with rather tiny and noisy coolers,
which is not a problem for power users (who use third-party solutions
anyway), but is not exactly good for PC makers.

Apparently,
AMD plans to offer better coolers with its microprocessors going
forward. This week the company revealed its Wraith thermal solution,
which will be used to cool down both current and upcoming chips from the
developer. The AMD Wraith, which was designed to take away around 125W
of heat, features a rather large aluminum heatsink with ultra-thin fins,
four heat-pipes as well as an 80-mm fan. AMD claims that the Wraith
features 24% more cooling fin surface area (179,730.1mm2) compared to its predecessor (144,397.8mm2),
which seems like a significant improvement. Contemporary 80-mm fans can
generate significant airflow while staying rather quiet. According to
AMD, the new fan pushes 55.78 cubic feet of air per minute (CFM), or 34%
more than the predecessor (41.6 CFM). The maximum noise level generated
by the Wraith cooler is around 39 dBA (based on what AMD says), which
is quieter compared to the current-generation D3 cooler from the
company, but is significantly louder than noise levels generated by advanced coolers
from companies like Noctua or Scythe (20 – 32 dBA, based on figures
published by these manufacturers). Overall, the new cooler from AMD
seems to be rather efficient for an in-box solution, but only real-world
tests will show how good the Wraith cooling system actually is.

While AMD did not disclose all details about its new thermal solution, it did show it in action on its YouTube channel.
The new cooler is noticeably larger than the AMD D3. It is also
noticeably quieter, but it is clearly not as noiseless as 120mm low-RPM
fans used on giant coolers.

The
AMD Wraith cooling system will be bundled with select microprocessors
going forward and will also be sold separately. The Wraith should be
compatible with all recent AMD sockets (e.g., FM2+, AM3+, etc.), but we
are not sure about the upcoming AM4 at this point. Since changing
mounting mechanism of a cooler is not that hard, it looks like AMD’s
Wraith will cool down the company’s chips for quite some time.

While
enthusiasts will continue to use third-party coolers with AMD’s current
and future central processing units, for many PC makers new thermal
solutions will mean that AMD-based systems will get considerably quieter
(which means generally more competitive). Since the Wraith is not
large, it will fit into small form-factor systems. As a result, it will
soon be possible to build an inexpensive SFF PC based on a
high-performance AMD APU that will be relatively quiet.

AMD
did not reveal when exactly it plans to start bundling the Wraith
cooler with its chips, but expect the new thermal solution to show up in
the coming months.

With
Google Glass, one of the major barriers to adoption was just how
glaringly obvious it was that you were wearing Google Glass. The display
was a field sequential color LCoS with a simple projection system to
make the display visible at a short distance away from the eye.
Unfortunately, the problem with this system was that the display was
completely obvious and wasn’t really integrated into traditional thin
lens glasses. It was also pretty obvious when the display was active, as
you could see light coming out of the LCoS array without getting
uncomfortably close to the person wearing Glass.

Some
of the other systems I’ve seen for projecting a display for smart
glasses have also been pretty obvious to spot such as any of ODG’s smart
glasses, although those aren’t really designed to be subtle in any way
as they try to pack a full tablet of hardware into something head-worn.
Sony’s SmartEyeGlass gets closer to something subtle, but it’s still
glaringly obvious that you’re wearing something odd.

Zeiss
identified this as an issue, and in response they created an internal
team to try and make an optical system that resolves all of these
issues. Their solution is what they’re now calling Smart Optics. This
optical system takes a display mounted at the edge of the lens and can
project it directly into the eye at an arbitrary position on the lens,
with an arbitrary focus to either place the displayed image a short
distance away from the eye (~2m), or even at infinity to create a true
HUD.

In
essence, this optical system relies upon total internal reflection and a
Fresnel structure to transmit the light from the display through the
lens into the eye. A complex prism design reflects the light from the
display at the edge of the display into the lens, where the Fresnel
structure then reflects the light in the lens out into the eye. The
Fresnel structure is index-matched with the lens itself, which makes it
almost invisible to the eye unless you have the right lighting to
highlight the structure.

The
entire design is made from injection-molded polycarbonate, which means
that it’s capable of being mass-produced in a method similar to most
current glasses. Based on discussions with those that worked on this
project, the prism in particular was especially difficult to create as
its shape is complex and voids and other defects would appear in the
polycarbonate as it cooled. Zeiss also emphasized that their design was
covered with over 250 patents to drive home the difficulty of making
this optical system work.

Zeiss
showed off an early prototype, which even at this stage was impressive
as there was no visible translucency that could occlude vision and the
projection worked flawlessly. Unfortunately, as the design is supposed
to be made with a prescription for those that need one I couldn’t quite
get the full experience as the corrective lenses that they had for the
prototype weren’t quite strong enough for my eyes, but their rapid
prototyping rig worked well and showed acceptable resolution and
luminance.

I
wasn’t really able to get much in the way of details regarding whether
any devices with this optical system were imminent, but it sounds like
Zeiss is working with partners that can put their optics to use. Based
upon a lot of the discussions I’ve had with various people working with
wearables it sounded like smart glasses were at least 5-10 years out,
but with technologies like this I wouldn’t be too surprised to know that
by the 7nm node that smart glasses using this technology will start to
reach mass consumer adoption.

Dell
does not produce its own display panels, but when it comes to unique
“world’s first” monitors, it is sometimes years ahead of all of its
rivals. At the International CES 2016, Dell introduced its UltraSharp
30-inch OLED display, the company’s first monitor to use organic light
emitting diode panel. The product is designed for professionals and
carries a rather extreme price tag, but this is going to be a dream
display for years to come.

The Dell UltraSharp UP3017Q
is a 30-inch display with 3840×2160 resolution, 0.1 ms response time and
an unknown refresh rate (yet, it should be very high). The monitor can
reproduce 1.07 billion colors, it covers 100% of Adobe RGB color space
as well as and 97.8% of DCI-P3 color space (used for digital movie
projection by the U.S. movie industry and is expected to be adopted in
televisions and in home cinema), according to Dell. Just a few
professional displays nowadays cover 100% of Adobe RGB. The manufacturer
declares 400,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, but admits the value is only
that because testing equipment won't go higher.

The
UltraSharp UP3017Q ultra-high-definition display has very narrow bezels;
the monitor itself is thin, but not remarkably thin like OLED TVs,
possibly because it features internal power supply unit as well as
complex logic inside. The monitor features a mini DisplayPort (mDP)
connector, an HDMI port as well as a USB type-C port, which could be
used for video and data connectivity as well as for power delivery (it
can be powered using a type-C cable, or deliver power to another
device).

Emissive
electroluminescent layer in organic light-emitting diode is made of
organic compound that emits light in response to an electric current.
The organic semiconductor layer is situated between two electrodes and
does not require a backlight. As a result, it can display truly deep
black levels, unlike liquid crystal display (LCD) panels, which use
various kinds of backlighting. Besides, since the emissive
electroluminescent layer is very thin and can take different shapes, it
is possible to build ultra-thin and even curved monitors and TVs using
OLEDs.

While OLED technology can deliver deep blacks,
high contrast ratio and exceptional colours, it is not free of
drawbacks. The organic layer may burn down over prolonged amount of
time, and colors can shift over time. To maximize lifespan of the OLED
panel inside the UltraSharp UP3017Q, Dell integrated a special presence
detector into the front panel of the display, which switches the monitor
off when nobody uses it. Another disadvantage of OLEDs is a possibility
of static image burn in. To reduce the chance of burn in, the UP3017Q
has a special pixel-shifting technology.

The Dell
UltraSharp 30 OLED monitor will cost whopping $4,999, which it becomes
available on March 31, 2016, in the United States. The display at this
point is only aimed at professionals, who work in color-critical
environments such as graphic arts and photography. However, due to
exceptional colors and contrast as well as ultra-fast response time, the
UltraSharp UP3017Q will be a dream display for gamers, prosumers and
other users, who value quality.

OLED panels are
considerably more expensive to produce than modern LCD panels, partly
because of lower yields. Last year an executive from LG Electronics said
that yields of OLED panels had reached 80% and would continue to grow.
At the International CES 2016, Kwon Bong-suk, the head of LG’s TV
business, said
that the company had cut prices of OLED TVs in the U.S. by 45% late in
2015. As a result, LG now expects sales of OLED televisions to triple
this year. Price reduction of OLED TVs indicates that production costs
of organic light-emitting diode panels are going down. Perhaps, over
time, the Dell UltraSharp UP3017Q will also become more affordable, or
Dell will release an OLED display for a wider audience.

While
we talked about Keyssa at CES last year, details were rather sparse as
the technology was still in the early stages of getting off the ground.
However, this year Keyssa’s connector technology is now commercially
available. Based upon discussions with those at Keyssa, products with
this new technology could ship as early as Q1 2016.

For
those that haven’t seen Keyssa in action before, it’s hard to really
understand the potential of this technology. At a high level, it’s
basically like NFC in the sense that this technology is very short range
wireless with a range of roughly an inch or a few centimeters before
the 60 GHz signal disappears completely. However, within that range you
get 6 Gbps of bandwidth and relatively low power compared to something
like 802.11ad/WiGig. Unlike 802.11ad WiFi, the connector and chip needed
to enable this technology is almost absurdly tiny, as the chip is no
more than a few millimeters squared. This is purely a physical layer
technology, which means that at the operating system level a Keyssa
connector can appear to be USB, DisplayPort, HDMI, SATA, PCIe, and
pretty much any point to point digital connection protocol you can name
today.

As
a result, Keyssa has the potential to completely do away with physical
data ports in devices. Probably the most obvious example of this would
be 2-in-1 hybrid devices like the Surface Book, which in theory could
completely do away with all of the wired connections that introduce
additional engineering challenges when designing a device like the
Surface Book.

Keyssa
has also discussed the potential to replace flex cables internally in
smartphones and other devices, which could reduce board area and/or
z-height along with simplifying design and reducing cost as flex cables
would no longer need to be laid out by hand.

This
connector can also use simple plastic with certain shapes like tubes to
introduce directionality and make wire-like connections over distance
without the need for actual wires or proper connections.

Overall,
Keyssa shows great potential and judging by the discussions I’ve had
there’s a significant amount of interest from OEMs and ODMs for this
technology, with hints that devices with this technology are already in
development. It’s hard to say what the full potential of this technology
is, but it’s definitely going to be interesting to see how this
develops.

Yesterday
Josh and I met with Ambarella and went on a tour of their exhibits. The
main topic was their new line of SoCs, along with the various products
and projects that have branched off from what these SoCs and their video
encoding and decoding capabilities can enable.

The
high end SoC in Ambarella's line of chips for cameras is H2. H2 is built
on Samsung's 14nm process, and it incorporates a quad core 1.2GHz
Cortex A53 cluster, and its capable of encoding 4K HEVC video at 60fps,
or 4K AVC video at 120fps. The latter makes it capable of doing 4K slow
mo videos by playing back the 120fps footage at 30fps. H2 also includes
support for capturing video with 10-bit color, as well as support for
HDR which has recently been integrated into the Blu-ray and UHD
standards.

The next SoC in Ambarella's line is H12. H12
isn't shown in the image above, but it's capable of encoding 4Kp30
video using AVC or HEVC. It uses a single 1GHz Cortex A9 core, and it’s
built on a 28nm process.

The last two SoCs are A9SE and
A12D. A12D is an entry level chip, while A9SE has some advanced
functionality, but is intended for devices sitting at lower prices than
ones that incorporate H2. A9SE offers 4Kp30 support, and can do 1080p60
video with electronic image stabilization.

One
of the demos that Ambarella showed was an example of their electronic
image stabilization for 4K video. Part of the drive behind this is the
fact that stabilization on drones has had to be implemented using a
mechanical system that shifts the camera along each axis to keep the
sensor in the same position. This type of system increases the size,
mass, and cost of the drone, and so it's obviously something that drone
makers would be keen to eliminate in order to allow for reduced prices
and improved battery life. Above you can see a short video which
compares two real time video feeds with EIS on and off. As you can see,
the difference is dramatic, and the level of stabilization that can be
done by the SoC is extremely impressive.

Another
exhibit showcased the ability to record 4Kp120 video. This is the first
time that I’ve seen any 4K footage recorded at a high enough frame rate
to slow it down an appreciable amount.

Several
of the exhibits that Ambarella had related to technology that will be
used in self driving cars. Some of this builds on demos that were shown
at last year’s CES. The demo that I found most interesting is the
electronic mirror. Essentially this is a mirror that integrates a
display which streams footage from a rear-mounted camera on your car.
The reasons for using an electronic mirror include the ability to have a
higher field of view, no obstruction from passengers in rear seats, and
better visibility at night due to the HDR processing that can be done
by the SoC at night in order to make the car behind you visible without
making the headlights overpoweringly bright. It’s important to note that
the mirror can act as a normal mirror in conditions when the camera is
not necessary.

Another
car-related demo from Ambarella involved mapping the environment around
a vehicle using cameras mounted on the various sides. This isn’t
exactly a new concept, but it does tie in with their new SoCs. Some
things demoed included environment mapping for self-driving cars, and
using the cameras to view an environment in order to implement features
like automatic parking.

The
last demo that I found quite interesting demonstrated the image
de-warping capabilities of the H2 and H12 SoCs. The demonstration shown
gave the example of a fisheye camera being used in a security camera
mounted on on a door, with the de-warping being used to put the image
into a state that is easy to view.

As far as real-time
video encoding goes, the tech being shown off by Ambarella definitely
impresses. I haven’t seen 4Kp120 recording in anything else that is
consumer-focused, and the push for improved 4Kp60 HEVC encoding with
10-bit color and HDR support is something that will be necessary as new
standards for UltraHD video are adopted.

Oculus
VR on Wednesday revealed the price of its Oculus Rift virtual reality
headset as well as its launch date. The price of the VR hardware appears
to be considerably higher than expected by gamers and industry analyst.
The developer claims that the high price is conditioned by high costs
and the use of custom hardware. However, such price point may slowdown
adoption of virtual reality technologies by the masses.

The Oculus Rift bundle includes the VR headset, an Xbox One gamepad, a sensor, the Oculus Remote controller as well as EVE: Valkyrie and Lucky's Tale
VR games. The initial bundle will not include the Oculus Touch
controllers, which were recently delayed to the second half of the year.
The Oculus Rift virtual reality headset is available for pre-order for
$599 on the company’s web-site and will ship starting March 28, 2016, to
20 countries. Select retailers will also sell Oculus Rift hardware in
April. In addition, makers of gaming PCs plan to offer Oculus Ready PCs
with the headset next month starting at $1499.

Back in early October, 2015, Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus VR, said
in an interview that the price of one Oculus Rift headset was in the
“$350 ballpark”, but it was “going to cost more than that”. As it
appears, the virtual reality head mounted display (HMD) costs nearly two
times more than that. The $599 price-point is a yet another indicator
that the first-generation VR headsets are expensive to make in general.
However, that price is too high for the mass market and for many gamers,
believes Jon Peddie, the head of Jon Peddie Research, which tracks
sales of graphics adapters and PC gaming hardware.

A Lot of Custom Hardware

While
the virtual reality HMD is available for pre-order now, Oculus VR still
has to confirm its final technical specifications. Based on what the
company revealed about six months ago, the Oculus Rift uses two custom
AMOLED panels (one per eye) with 2160×1200 resolution and 90 Hz refresh
rate (1080×1200 per eye). The AMOLED displays were architected for low
persistence, they display each image for about 2 ms in a bid to minimize
delays and avoid effects like motion blur, which can cause nausea. The
headset also features specially designed adjustable lenses to enable
wide field of view. Each headset has integrated headphones and a
microphone. Besides, the Oculus Rift sports various sensors, including
the company’s own Constellation system based on infrared sensors, which
tracks position of the user’s head.

To connect to a PC,
the Oculus Rift and devices that accompany it (gamepad, sensor, remote,
etc.) use one HDMI 1.3/HDMI 1.4 interconnection, three USB 3.0
interconnections and one USB 2.0 interconnection.

The
Oculus Rift virtual reality headset uses a lot of custom components
that were designed specifically for this device. For example, the
low-persistence AMOLED display panels were co-developed by Oculus and
Samsung Electronics. Oculus VR claims that they wanted to make a device
that will offer the best virtual reality experience possible today,
which is why they tried to avoid any trade-offs or compromises. Due to
extensive usage of parts that are not mass-produced today, the cost of
each Oculus Rift should be rather high, which is one of the reasons why
the headset is priced at $599.

High-End PC Needed

Since
the Oculus Rift should run games in 2160×1200 resolution at 90 Hz with
minimal latency, it requires a rather powerful personal computer to
offer comfortable experience. Oculus VR recommends a PC with a quad-core
Intel Core i5-4590 microprocessor (or equivalent), an AMD Radeon R9 290
or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 graphics adapter (or equivalent) as well as
8GB of RAM. The company admits that the more powerful your system is,
the better experience with Oculus Rift you are going to get.

Developers
of graphics processing units have implied multiple times that for the
best VR experience a dual-GPU graphics sub-system is required today. For
example, AMD plans to align release of its new dual-chip Fiji video card with availability of VR headsets
in the second quarter. In a dual-GPU graphics sub-system, each graphics
chip renders its own part of the scene for one eye. Such approach
doubles performance and lowers latency. However, two GPUs also require a
more powerful central processing unit as well as a high-end power
supply unit.

For
makers of computer hardware the launch of the first VR headset for
gamers means a chance to improve sales of their higher-end products. Not
only manufacturers of video cards or microprocessors can benefit from
availability of the Oculus Rift, but also producers of RAM, solid-state
drives and motherboards can take advantage of the headset as enthusiasts
begin to build their new systems. Unfortunately, significant
investments in hardware may slowdown adoption of virtual reality HMDs by
both gamers and the general public.

Oculus VR: 100+ Virtual Reality Games to Be Available in 2016

Oculus
VR claims that more than 100 games designed for virtual reality and
compatible with the Rift are set to be available by the end of 2016,
including “dozens of full-length AAA” games. The company does not reveal
a lot of names, but in addition to the titles bundled with the VR
headset, the firm mentions Rockband VR by Harmonix, Edge of Nowhere by Insomniac, and The Climb by Crytek.

While
over a hundred of titles that support VR is a lot, only a handful of
them will actually attract users to the platform. Since $599 is a
significant investment for many gamers, there should be several
compelling titles, which not only demonstrate the technology itself, but
make people want to play.

A Lot of Excitement

There
is a lot of excitement about virtual reality technologies not only
among gamers, but also among developers of hardware and software. While
the technology itself has a lot of potential for video games and beyond,
the very first Oculus Rift headset is designed primarily for games. The
price of the HMD is high for many gamers, but for general users it is
prohibitively expensive. Therefore, sales of the device will likely be
rather limited. In fact, even Facebook, the owner of Oculus VR, does not
expect to sell a lot of VR headsets this year.

Sales
enthusiast-class graphics cards, which cost $399 and higher, total
approximately three million units a year, according to Jon Peddie
Research. There are many PC gamers nowadays, but only a fraction of them
invests thousands of dollars in hardware. Various analysts make
different predictions about sales of the first-generation VR gear, some
are optimistic and some are pessimistic. For example, according to a
report released by Juniper Research several months ago, cumulative sales
of VR headsets in their first year of availability (i.e., 2016) will be
approximately three million units. There are three major VR devices to
be released this year: the Oculus Rift, the Vive from HTC and the
PlayStation VR from Sony. It is highly likely that the majority of
hardcore enthusiast gamers will buy only one of them. Juniper predicted
that cumulative sales of VR headsets will hit around 30 million units by
2020 as hardware and software evolves.

It remains to
be seen how many virtual reality head-mounted displays Oculus VR will
sell this year. Palmer Luckey said in an interview that the first
consumer version of the Oculus Rift was developed to offer great
experience and to show potential of the technology to the world.
Hopefully, it will deliver to the promise.